The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of our souls. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music…just a diabolical twanging.
00835 – How Shall Musicians Image God?
We image God in the music we make and perform. When the program is hit-or-miss, we show forth a God who lacks purpose and direction;…when our performance of music lacks vitality or artistic grace, we portray God as inert; when our musical choices revolve around taste...
00820 – Searching for Purpose & Meaning
Whether rich or poor, male or female…our stories are all stories of searching. We search for a good self to be and for good work to do. We search to become human in a world that tempts us always to be less than human or looks to us to be more. We search to love and to...
00800 – Christ-Centered Worship
Worship celebrates God’s saving deed in Jesus Christ. This kind of worship is not a goal-driven worship, but a Christ-driven worship. And when Christ is the center of worship, all the goals of worship are achieved: Christ-centered worship educates, evangelizes, heals,...
00775 – Worship Dichotomy Not in Scripture
In the modern evangelical church, singing, praying, giving, and other congregational acts of worship are regarded at times as preamble to the sermon. Music, in particular, appears separate from elements of worship that seem to be more spiritual, such as praying and...
00767 – Transforming the Will
The dedicated will must bit by bit take up, transform, and unify the dedicated body and mind, welding them into a single instrument devoted to the purposes of God.
00737 – Worship and Adoration
To worship is to quicken the conscience of the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. All this is gathered up in that...
00702 – Purpose of the Church
The purpose of this Christian society called the “Church” is, first: to glorify God by our worship. We do not go to church just to hear a sermon. We go to church to worship God. from Peace with God
00573 – Learning to Wait on God’s Timing
Our sense of urgency is balanced by the requirement to wait—to wait on the timing of God, which we can neither predict nor force. And the poor of the world have much to teach us about waiting—waiting with hope, purpose, and active preparation for change; waiting...
00549 – Cease to Live for the Self Alone
The awareness that we are yet meant to do more than we are signals where God lies in wait for us to become what we are meant to be. Then the spiritual life, the awareness of a driving energy within that is greater than ourselves, greater than anything around us,...